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About Us

Through coordinated efforts with communities in the Twin Cities Minnesota metropolitan area and airport users, the MAC Noise Program Office strives to develop effective noise reduction solutions and to provide pertinent, understandable information. Our mission is facilitating the noise sensitive operation of the MAC's system of airports through collaborative efforts employing available resources and technologies in a fiscally responsible manner optimizing the benefits of noise reduction for the airport's surrounding communities and users of the MAC airport system.

For decades, the MAC has been engaging communities, airport operators and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in cooperative efforts to reduce aircraft noise impacts associated with the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP) and the MAC's six reliever airports.

In MSP's earliest days, nearby neighborhoods were not greatly effected by occasional aircraft noise. By the mid-1960s, as communities expanded and air travel increased, aircraft noise surfaced as a significant community concern. Realizing the importance of addressing aircraft noise issues in the communities, the MAC engaged in a cooperative approach to addressing them and the Metropolitan Aircraft Sound Abatement Council (MASAC) was created in 1969. Some of MASAC's efforts resulted in the elimination of training flights at MSP, the addition of a noise abatement specialist to the MAC staff and the establishment of a noise complaint hotline to handle noise complaint calls and to provide information to residents around MSP.

MASAC disbanded in 2000 and the MAC established a Blue Ribbon Panel to develop a new framework for an aircraft noise advisory committee. The MSP Noise Oversight Committee (NOC) was established in 2002. The MAC Noise Program Office works closely with the NOC and is dedicated to collecting, analyzing and reporting aircraft operations data for the purpose of working with the communities surrounding the MAC's system of airports on aircraft noise issues.

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